Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes
by QueenKhaleesi
Summary: Stella is jaded and ready for change, which comes quickly in the form of a mysterious man and his blue box. 9th Doctor/OC. TAKES PLACE IN TEH TIMELINE BEFORE ROSE


**Okay guys... lets see how this goes :D this is my doctor who story yayyy! it's for the Ninth doctor (Christopher Eccleston) because he's my favorite :) and YES i'm still continuing my Daryl Dixon Story so DON'T WORRY.**

**Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes**

**Episode 1:**

I heard the roar before I saw them. Like most concerts, this one had been sold out, stadium seating, with an extraordinary light show planned for my fans entertainment. I stood on the platform underneath the stage.

My manger was speaking something indiscernible over the dull roar that echoed in the stadium. He ended his speech with a thumbs up gesture and I faked a smile.

As he walked away I looked down at my hands, suddenly able to feel every piece of sequined clothing, every inch of leather, smear of make up and every drop of hair care product on my person. My microphone piece hung heavily off my ear as the cute music tech whose name I couldn't recall handed me my pink guitar.

I held it like it was an alien object as music I recognized as an over-glammed version of my first single blared harshly. I felt the platform start to rise and I stumbled before collecting myself and regaining my balance.

The stage lights were hard on my eyes and I squinted, putting my hands in front of my face. So many people screamed in anticipation, waiting for me to begin playing the foreign instrument in my hand. My mouth ran dry and I ran my hand through my hair. After a few moments the crowd died down and the band played softer, they new something was wrong when I didn't come in on beat 4.

My lead guitarist walked over to me and stared perplexed. I didn't know him for very long, but I think I'd miss him the most.

"You okay angel?" He whispered, holding out his hand. I looked down at it and for the first time I knew what I wanted, and it wasn't this. I handed over my guitar to which he furrowed his eyebrows and grabbed my microphone out of my ear, causing loud feedback.

"I'm so sorry… I can't do this anymore." I spoke to the crowd, which was now booing me. I felt the color leaving my face as my realization hit me like a freight train, knocking the wind out of me. "I have to go." Turning from the crowd I ran side stage to where my manager stood waiting for me, red faced.

"What do you think you're doing?" I had barely noticed him standing there until he spoke. I gave him a look that was only describable as a mixture of resentment and confusion.

"I'm quitting." With that I shoved past him and down the stairs.

"You can't quit! I own you!" He shouted after me. "You'll never work again missy!"

...

There was no looking back for me, I knew that. I had just committed career suicide, and after the adrenaline wore off, I was left with an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach, one that I had grown quite accustomed to. I had no one, surely my a-list friends would snub me now, I had no where, my fame had ruined the small town I came from. I was nothing.

I choked back a hard sob and stopped mid stride. It was fate, or something greater than that, that brought me to where I was, the Golden Gate Bridge. I walked over to the side and looked out into the dark water as I let my mind slip into a place just as dark. Messy thoughts swam through my head, no one will miss you, not after tonight.

I'm going to do it, I thought, gripping the edge handrail. I looked up and over at the framework. It was just a small climb over the protective guardrails and it was over. Quick and easy.

I finagled my way over and cautiously put my feet on the small ledge on the other side. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I gathered up the final gusto to let go with my hands.

"Oi!" With a small scream I looked over my shoulder. I taller man in a black leather jacket was walking over to me with a pace a professional sprinter would be jealous of. He seemed like he was trying to catch his breath, as if he had been running before he stumbled across the pop star in distress. "What are you doing? Have you gone mad?"

His intrusion had none-the-less startled me and I fumbled for words.

"I-I-I was just trying to get a closer look." I looked down at the water with an inquisitive stare and smiled. "Yep, it's a bridge alright." The man had now folded his arms and was looking over the side with me at nothing in particular.

"Why yes it is. You humans, always so curious. Can't just look up the schematics in the public records. Nope, just climb over the side and have a look for yourself." I was confused by his use of the word "humans" but decided to let it slide, I mean the gentleman did just find me about to jump. It was embarrassing and if he had been paparazzi that would have been the end of me. Again. He looked me over again, this time his face void of any humor at all. "You weren't going to jump were you?"

My cheeks flushed and looked out at the water again. I had been so close until I was interrupted, and now I was beginning to get angry with him.

"Is this just what you do?"

"What?"

"This! Do you just walk around the streets of America and prevent people from admiring bridges? Or… is it just an annoying habit you've picked up recently?"

"What? I'm a bridge inspector." He pulled out a wallet and held it open to me like he was brandishing a badge. "Junior inspector, it's my job." However the paper inside was blank and I glared at him.

"I'm not stupid you know." he looked at me confused and then at his paper, almost studying it, and then back to me, a question discernable in his eyes. "The paper is blank."

"It is blank, but how did you know that." It was more of a statement than anything else and a grin spread across his face. "I'm The Doctor."

"Doctor who." I spoke coldly glaring out at the river again, thoroughly annoyed.

"Just The Doctor. Will you come over the ledge now? It's incredibly unsafe." He held out a gentle hand to me, which I looked at hesitantly. Something told me to trust this man, but then again the water had seemed to enticing just minutes before. I looked back at The Doctor. "Please?" His eyes were pleading, and slowly I turned on the small ledge, grabbing a hold of his hand. He smiled at me and gracefully helped me over the edge.

With that same goofy grin from earlier he brushed himself off. The doctor gave me an expectant look and I felt my cheeks flush.

"Oh, oh uhm, my name is Stella." I brushed my hair out of my face, realizing just how windy it actually was. He still seemed expectant and I smirked at him. "I get one name, you get one name."

"Cheeky." I waited for him to confirm whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. "Don't worry, it's a good thing. Most of the time." The doctor paused for one second before grabbing my hand. "Now lets work on getting you off this bridge."

"What, why?" I asked, just as he began running in the other direction.

"Because it isn't safe." I heard swooping sounds over my head and I began to panic. I ducked and screamed as something swooped so low I felt the air move above my head. The Doctor however kept a firm hold on my hand and drug me to safety just off the bridge.

"What are they?" Glancing at the bridge I saw series of black shapes swirling and flying above and darting below the bridge. They seemed to melt into the shadows and come back in the light.

"They're Elemental Shades and they are very dangerous. Don't let one touch you."

"Why what do they do?" I was awestruck, it was like nothing I'd ever seen, even though it was night time, the entire bridge was darker than the rest of the city, almost shrouded in a black veil.

"Just don't let them touch you." He released my hand and took a step forward.

"Why are they circling the bridge like that?"

"It's Golden Gate Bridge. This is THE American center point for intergalactic phenomena because it sits on a rift between time in space. They're refueling and from the looks of it, it's not for intergalactic travel." His expression was calculating and he crossed his arm, rubbing his chin. "That's an army." As he was talking, my mind was still trying to wrap itself around how intergalactic came from his lips so easily.

"What do you mean Intergalactic? And what's all this about a rift in time in space? It's a bridge." I paused for a second before walking up next to him. He paid me no mind so I grabbed his arm and tugged, to which he looked down at my hand before looking at my face. "Who are you?" The Doctor paused for a moment before responding.

"How would you deal with an army of life threatening aliens circling a tear in the fabric of time and space?" I was baffled and I began to speak before he interrupted me. "This answer is important, now think about it."

"Sew up the tear?" its sounded stupid coming out of my mouth. I just envisioned a magic laser needle sewing it up with thread made of stardust. I snorted and looked up at The Doctor. He was frowning, like he was thinking hard about something.

"We can't sew it up, it would be impossible…" Just then a loud screech rose from the bridge and my eyes snapped back to the ominous shadows. Their pace had quickened and now they were breaking off, chasing people who dropped dead in the middle of the streets.

"Oh my god!" I brought my hands to my mouth in shock as people screamed in horror. "They're killing those people!" The Doctor sprang into action, pulling out small a silver wand like object. He pressed a button on the side, causing the device to whir. When that did produce the desired results, he dashed at the Golden Gate Bridge full speed.

"Go home Stella! Go home and be safe!"

"Where do you think you're going! Those thing will kill you!" By then he was too far away or didn't care to respond to the obvious statement I made. Inside I felt a morale dilemma; Do I chase the man who saved my life and possible return the favor, or do I go back 'home' and pretend like this atrocity wasn't happening? "God dammit." I sighed as I took a step forward.

Begrudgingly I jogged on the pavement, searching my surroundings for some kind of weaponry. I spied an abandoned tollbooth a few feet to my right and quickly ran around to the door on the side. The screams had died down, I suppose most of the people on the bridge had died or gotten away to safety, but the silence made my searching more frantic.

"If I was a big giant shadow, what would make me go away?" My brain was coming up with nothing, and in my panic I over turned chairs and knocked things off of shelves. Two loud thuds brought my attention to the floor where two industrial flashlights rolled to a halt. "Wow…" I muttered to myself.

I pick each one up and clicked the on switch to make sure they worked. Grabbing some extra batteries, I attached one of the flashlights to my belt loop for when I found The Doctor, or other possible survivors, and held the other in my hand.

"I can't believe I'm going to fight aliens with two flashlights and some extra D batteries." I paused for a second and turned on my flashlight, pointing it around. "Actually, I can't believe I've so easily accepted the fact that these are aliens. And now I'm talking to myself, I'm going crazy." I heard a whooshing sound above me and jumped, shining the flashlight up into the sky. Taking a few steps forward, watching out for the bodies that littered the ground. Another whoosh came from behind me, and I spun around, catching the shadows tail end in the light. They were playing with me.

A ghostly shriek rose in the distance and I began to run towards the maintenance door in the tower. Fortunately it was open and I slammed it shut behind me. I pushed a chair up under the doorknob, which shook ferociously.

Cautiously taking a few steps back, I looked up the stairs.

"Doctor?" I called up. There was slight shuffle, and from a few flights up a figured looked down at me.

"Oi! I thought I told you to go home!" I have no home, I thought, but I smiled at him.

"What and let you have all the fun by yourself?" I shone the flashlight up at him and grinned widely. He stood speechless for a second, before grinning goofily at me. "I've got and extra one for you if you want it."

"Fantastic!" Without waiting for his invite I bounded up the steps, suddenly glad my costume designer had decided on sensible shoes for the evening.

I met up with him a few seconds later, slightly out of breath, and handed him his flashlight.

"What made you think to grab a torch?" I shrugged and reached into my jacket pocket, brandishing 2 D batteries for him to take.

"I figured People Eating Shadows are like every other shadow, they disappear in the light." I said with a devilish grin.

"That's brilliant." He clicked the on switch a few times before a look of realization came across his face. "You're brilliant!" Quickly he kissed the top of my head and bounded up the stairs.

"Wait why?" I stood for a few seconds before chasing after him.

"I can turn on the flood lights. The shadows will dissipate. The world is saved." He seemed quite pleased with himself as we entered the room at the top of the stairs.

The Doctor pulled out his silver wand thing and pointed it at the knob. With another whir, the door swung open. I went to walk in, but The Doctor held up his Hand to stop me.

"Wait." His eyes narrowed and he shone his flashlight into the room. The room seemed to quiver and the darkness began to recede. My heart jumped when I realized I had almost stepped into my death. "My name is The Doctor, I would like an audience with the Elder Shade." There was a whisper and The Doctor nodded his head.

Turning back to me he pointed to the light switch on the wall. I understood him perfectly, if things got out of hand I'd flip the switch and turn on the overhead lights.

"Right, well, how are you tonight?" There was another whisper, this one more fervent, and The Doctor held his flashlight down. "Right, so sorry about that." A pause ensued, making me uneasy and The Doctor turned back to me. "Stella, your torch." My gut instinct told me to leave it on, but for fear of making matters worse I begrudgingly clicked it off.

"Sorry." I whispered, holding my hand up in a friendly gesture. The Doctor, who seemed quite pleased with the situation turned back to the room.

"Elder Shadow, I must ask you to cease and desist in accordance with Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation, also in conjuncture with Article 57 which prohibits the destruction of a level 5 planet and its inhabitants." A sigh broke through The Doctor's voice, one that shook the entire room and everything in it. His bemused look fell immediately from his face and he crossed his arms over his chest. "You can't just invade another planet because the Howling Halls didn't suffice you."

I felt my hand itching to pull the switch, even though I could only understand one side of this conversation I knew it wasn't going in the right direction.

"Well I'm here and unless you heed my warning I will be forced to stop you. By any means necessary." The last line was clearly a threat, one that judging by the look on his face, he was willing to back up. The entire room rumbled and the itching in my hand won out, just as the Shade went to swarm The Doctor, my hand shot up to the light and clicked it on.

The light was blinding, since I had been in the dark for so long and I had to shield my eyes from it. The shade screeched in pain and backed out of the door on the other side of the room that led to the catwalks.

"We need to find the Switches for the flood light. The Shades have been weakened, but it wont be for long, because of the time energy they've been storing. I'd say we have a good 2 minutes before they regroup and take San Francisco."

"What?"

"The shades rely heavily on structure. If we can flood the bridge with light while the Elder Shade is on it, it will destroy him and send his army running off to the far reaches of space. Like a bunch of scaredy cats." My mind was blown. The Doctor didn't even miss a beat between talking about the destruction of San Francisco and calling the invaders scaredy cats.

"They can't just DESTROY a whole city!"

"They'll destroy the city, the country and the entire world if you don't help me, so please, grab that switch over there." He nodded to the wall and low and behold there was a switch. It was ridiculous actually, one of those handled switches you see in the movies that cut off all the power when you flip it. "With a bit of jiggery pokery…" his silver wand whirred at the control panel and sparks flew, causing The Doctors face to light up with excitement. "Aha! Pull the switch!" he pointed at me and I did as I was told. But it was stuck.

"Doctor! It wont move!" I jiggled it fiercely to avail, which was very frustrating considering the circumstances. The Doctor skirted over to me and knelt on the floor in front of the switch, placing it on his shoulder. With a loud groan he pushed upwards, causing the lever to squeak before resigning to the on position.

The entire area lit up like it was the middle of the day, and I rushed out on to the catwalks, grabbing the side rails and peering over the edge. Some shadows continued to skirt around the bridge squealing and shrieking in pain, while most of them ran to the Elder which sat smack dab underneath me. It twitched in and out, almost like a TV that was static, and shrieked loudly, shaking the entire structure.

I held on for dear life, almost being thrown over the edge of the railing. A firm hand took hold of my shoulder and held me in place. Looking up at The Doctor I found his face solemn, full of pain and… guilt?

"You did it." I beamed up at him, taking one last look down at the fading creature. "You saved the world." He gave me a forced smile before heading back into the room. For the first time that day I really sensed how heavy he was.

Silently I stood up, cautiously closing the door behind me. Following him down the stairs, I played with my short mop of hair and bit my lip nervously. Like most right brain thinkers, I didn't like silence.

When we got outside The Doctor headed for a large blue box that had been parked next to the tollbooth. Surprisingly I hadn't noticed it before when I went to get the flashlights. Without a word he stuck his key in the door and turned the lock.

"What are you going to do in there?" I asked innocently, staring wide-eyed at the box. Turning back to me he doctor was already all smiles and he stood with his arms crossed in the doorway.

"It's my ship." He paused, thoughtful for a moment before reiterating. "Well its more like a time machine."

"Right, and I'm the President of the United States." I laughed, running a hand through my bangs.

"You could be I suppose. Don't really know that much about you except that you're a bridge fanatic." He joked, bringing up our first encounter. "Except its only 2012, so I know you aren't the President, there wont be a female president for another 30 years or so…" He drabbled under his breath. I scrunched up my face in confusion and he knew he was losing me. "But I suppose I would to know you, perhaps even take you to meet the first Female President. I think she'd fancy you."

"What do you mean meet the first female President? I thought you said that wont happen for another 30 years?"

"Time Machine." The Doctor shrugged his shoulders, his arms still crossed over his chest. "Unless of course you want to take the long way around…" Now he was getting mischievous as a spark of deviousness glinted in his eyes.

"What about the danger?"

"Plenty of that to go around, you will be in the only Time Machine around." I contemplated for a moment.

"I guess I could go, nothing I'll miss here."

"Course not, I can have you back five minutes ago if you'd like." I stared at him in disbelief for a second before pressing on.

"Say I go with you… how are we both supposed to fit in there?" The doctor took a step to the side and held the door open for her.

"See for yourself." His eyes flickered with anticipation, a slight dare. I squinted my eyes at him and hesitantly took a step forward.

No amount of science fiction could have prepared me for the inside f his machine. As soon as I stepped foot on board I felt a pulsing, almost like a heart beat, beating through the very core, drawing me in. It wasn't until I was up the ramp when I realized just how big it was.

"It's bigger on the inside. How did you do that?" I ran back to the door and stepped outside, taking a few steps back. In a frenzy I did a quick lap around the outside. Yes, this box was definitely bigger on the inside.

"Its Dimensional Transcendentalism." The Doctor was now smiling at me, almost as if a parent would to an awestruck child. "So, are we going or what?"

"One more question… Why is it a Police Box? What is a Police Box?"

"Aha, one of my more favorite questions." The Doctor held his hand out to me and I took it, allowing him to pull me through the magical wooden doors into a whole new reality. "Every TARDIS has a Chameleon Device…"

**...**

**let me know how you liked it :)**


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